"Doing more exercise with less intensity,"
Arthur Jones believes, "has all but
destroyed the actual great value
of weight training. Something
must be done . . . and quickly."
The New Bodybuilding for
Old-School Results supplies
MUCH of that "something."

This is one of 93 photos of Andy McCutcheon that are used in The New High-Intensity Training to illustrate the recommended exercises.

Doc, I got the book and it is awesome. I do have a question. I know that you do not promote or suggest split routines. But I seem to have a problem trying to do legs twice a week. I have been training on a Mon. and Thurs Schedule, full body routines. It seems that on the second day (Thurs), I am still feeling it in my legs. If I continue to try and push on it starts to hurt in the joints. I was wondering if, as long as I still adhere to the minimum workload necessary, if you thought maybe just hitting legs once a week maybe by themselves would be a good idea, or should I hit them once a week with my upper body. Thanks to anyone with some ideas.

I just read your new book, and I can't wait to start. I am a little confused on one issue though. Should I be following the routines given in Chapter 14, or the 6 month Phase I-IV used by David Hudlow? Also, what is the difference in goals for these two sets of routines? Thanks for writing this book. I've been doing HVT exercises for a few years w/o seeing too much difference in terms of gains.

I was co-author of a paper from the Journal of Exercise physiology, "Strength training methods and the work of Arthur Jones", that you kindly mentioned in your excellent book.

I'm glad you enjoyed our paper: it seems to have made quite an impact and, along with later ones we have published in JEP and the Journal of Orthopaedics, seems to have promoted a lot of web-based debate (not all of it well-informed!).

We are currently doing studies relating to the MedX lumbar extension machine which, as you will know, can produce absolutely astonishing results. We submitted one to a journal last week so watch this space!

I have a question for you: I was wondering whether Arthur read the JEP paper. I sent a copy to Inge but I know she was very ill around that time and I'm not sure whether they received it. If he did, what did he make of it? Am intrigued to know.

hello mr. darden, i am new to this site i just purchased your book [i know im late!] i have had major brain surgery 3 times and i am unable to do the core excercises [sqaut,bench or dead] but i have applied the training theory to my training and have made great strides i am 41 5' 7'' @175 i have read other books from you..very excited about reading this one...i quess i am to late for those awesome shirts....do you think you could help me out?? very excited,and huge fan....michael

After about a year and a half of using HIT, I finally tried the BIG workout last nite for the first time. I just want to say, YOU ARE EVIL :) Wow, that was insane! It was every bit as intense as I thought it would be, and then some. My legs were jello on rep 3 of the second set of squats! I don't know how I didn't puke at the end, because my muscles were on FIRE! Thanks for the best worst 28 minutes I've ever experienced!

To everyone else out there that hasn't tried it, MAN UP. You'll hate it when you do it, but then you can't wait to do it again after!

Hi Dr. Darden
I just finished reading your The New HIT book you wrote in 2004. I am 25 years of age and have always heard more is better but for the last few year my gains have been slow and frustrating. What kind of progress can the average guy expect? I have to admit that its hard to saty away from the gym and only workout 3 to 2 times a week. Do you have any advice to put me at ease cause sometimes I feel like its not enough and granted i just started the program.

tlayfield wrote:
Hi Dr. Darden
I just finished reading your The New HIT book you wrote in 2004. I am 25 years of age and have always heard more is better but for the last few year my gains have been slow and frustrating. What kind of progress can the average guy expect? I have to admit that its hard to saty away from the gym and only workout 3 to 2 times a week. Do you have any advice to put me at ease cause sometimes I feel like its not enough and granted i just started the program.

I was in the same boat as you when I started HIT a little over a year and a half ago. I was used to working out 3-4 times a week. The reason your progress has stalled is probably because you are overtraining. I know I was. Right now, I am working through the BIG workout, training only 2 times a week. Trust me, once you get the hang of a HIT workout, your body won't want to train 4 times a week!

The brief, intense workouts require more time off in between to recover. My progress using HIT has been awesome. I would never go back to high volume training.

It's taken a while but I have read this book.
I love the format, the way it's written, the interviews and the photos.

I feel very proud to own it.
I've read it a few times and it still sits on the coffee table, against my wifes wishes...
The more I read about Arhtur the more I love about the man.
I just wished I'd had read it earlier.

Although I'm much more a Mike Mentzer devotee I can say from decades of experience HIT is by far THE most effective bodybuilding system there is. Everything works at first (volume, drugs, peroidization, etc). Only HIT will take a man from beginner to Mr Olympia as quickly as is possible for that individual. Mentzer claimed he put 50lbs on one client in 90 days. Only HIT can HIT can do that! Jones, Darden, Viator Mentzer. I guess it doesn't matter who says it.

Dr. Darden, I have been reading this book off and on and will say it is one of my favorites.
I have a question pertaining to the split routine you prescribed to one of your trainees, on page 229 you reference a 3 day split routine where the individual trains each body part twice a week 6 days in a row and has the 7th as a rest day.

how did this fella recuperate so good and still make gains?

are you still a big advocate of training each body part more than once a week, i.e. 2 or 3 times a week